Thursday, October 23, 2014

Last night was a great evening at the Heartside Ministry Gala Fundraiser, and today I was happy to be with number one son, Matt.

We found a new Thai restaurant (Aroy Thai in Standale) and also this vehicle begging to be washed.

After lunch we took a quick visit to the Downtown Market to see what was new (a Sushi restaurant).

It was interesting to see the old abandoned Klingman Furniture warehouse being converted into lofts for low income households. Great use of old space for the people already living in this neighborhood.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

It was a lovely day today but with very brisk winds. We thought Roselle Park might be a bit protected from the wind (not so much as it turned out) but we did our 50 minute walk there.As far as fall color goes, this park is pretty yellow.

We never saw this view of the Grand River before, long before you actually walk down to the river.

Then seeds, swans, graffiti, flowers, and thistles - the pageantry of a nature walk.

There are some grass path alternatives to the paved paths and we took a few of them today but one didn't turn out so well.

The only animal life seen consisted of caterpillars, grasshoppers, the aforementioned swans, and one snake, who quickly slithered off the path.Fall is lovely but "nothing gold can stay" (thank you Robert Frost). Enjoy it while you can!

The best laid plans always go awry when the power goes out. About 7:00pm last night it went, and there were no storms or high winds. We have our procedures in place by now. First call Consumers Ed to report it. Next check with our driveway neighbors to see if it's all of us or just us (it's never just us, but we check anyway :-) Then we take a walk to see if we can see what's up. Neighbor Confab on the driveway:

The Selfs went back in to light their fire, Jeffers headed out for dinner, and we carried on down the road. Jeffers had seen emergency vehicles to the east so there we went, and promptly met our other neighbor Gretchen with her friend, Jan.

Gretchen and Jan gave us a big piece of the picture. They had seen the tree fall and take down the wire, live wire. It was still humming and sparking by the time we got there.

The Fire Department was on duty waiting for Consumers Ed to show up. Gretchen, Jan, and Fireman Dave went to school together (too dark for a good pic).

Consumers Ed showed up, surveyed the situation, told the firemen to not let anyone in the woods (really?), and took off to turn off the power to the wire. We walked home in the dark, read books by candlelight, went to bed, and hoped for the best.

About 2:00 am the power came back and I was happy to be awakened by all of our lights being on in the house :-)This morning we put away the candles and flashlights (but not too far away) and scraped up the candle wax from the counter. Cheers!